Free Web NovelChapter 450: Chapter 424 Lost Bedsheet_1
Well, this manager really knows how to deal with people.
Xu Dayuan didn’t make things difficult for him, and quickly had Zhang Ping and the others go to take statements. The photos of Zhang Wannian and Liu Xiangrui were distributed, and each took a service worker to separate rooms to gather information.
Liu Yufei waved to Zhou Ning and headed straight for the room.
The villa was not large, antiquated and quaint. Zhou Ning looked around and felt it was familiar, since the South Gate led directly to The Third Seaside Bathing Beach. In the sea therapy area, many villas were antiques, some even built by Germans.
Upon entering the villa, there was a suite on each side of the staircase in the lobby, and this villa, number three, had two floors, amounting to only four suites in total. Considering its location, the price could definitely not be cheap.
Based on the investigation and analysis of the past two days, Zhang Wannian seemed to be the type who, after a serious illness, began to indulge himself and wasn’t short on money. He wanted only the best accommodation and even let go of the businesses he most cared about. If such a person wanted to do something unprecedented, it was indeed very likely.
I remember a movie where the protagonist was diagnosed with cancer, and he made a bucket list, hoping to accomplish everything he had never done before he died.
Thinking this, the room was already opened. The sheer curtain in the living room entrance was drawn, and no personal belongings were immediately visible. The room was fairly tidy, after all, with no windows or air conditioning opened in winter, dust had no way to circulate.
Zhou Ning looked around. The floor was covered with large plastic sheets, which puzzled Zhou Ning for a moment. Liu Yufei came over and explained,
"I came here with others yesterday, and to avoid leaving shoe prints and disturbing the traces at the scene, I remembered I had this kind of ground film in my trunk, so I spread it out. Rest assured, everyone wore gloves and shoe covers when they entered, and they didn’t touch anything, just took a quick look."
Zhou Ning nodded and motioned to Mr. Yang.
"Begin your site investigation, and be thorough. Don’t overlook the drain outlet of the bathtub."
Mr. Yang didn’t mince words and went into the scene with a few people, while Liu Yufei and Zhou Ning stepped out to give them enough space.
Standing at the villa’s front door, Zhou Ning looked at the road ahead—already shrouded by trees. Even in winter, with branches crisscrossing, the villa’s door couldn’t be seen from the South Gate.
Liu Yufei looked at Zhou Ning, who was persistently searching, and sighed.
"Stop looking. When I came over yesterday, I had someone check all the surveillance footage in the control room and made copies. They keep footage for a long time, but unfortunately, not every villa can be covered. After all, surveillance requires wiring, and the sea therapy area is so scattered. I’ve heard they invest a sizable amount of money daily, but the effectiveness is poor.
From the South Gate’s surveillance, we could indeed see villa number three, but only the upper half of the small building. The entrance wasn’t visible, making it impossible to identify people entering. Given the large area covered, a single villa is generally looked after by just one guesthouse service worker.
I’ll take a closer look at the guesthouse service worker. If the room housed two people, no matter how briefly, traces must have been left. I don’t think Zhang Wannian would clean up the hotel room himself, right?"
Zhou Ning smiled.
"Alright, Mrs. Fei, it’s up to your interrogation skills now. I know where to look."
Back at the entrance of the suite, Zhou Ning looked inside. Liu Yongxin was squatting at the entrance, tilting his head towards the ground.
"Master, have you found something?"
Liu Yongxin stood up straight and circled an area with chalk.
"Footprint, it’s a water mark left by a bare foot on the floor. The foot is not very big, with the longest toe being the biggest. There’s only a print of the forefoot. The only peculiar thing is the wide gap between the big toe and the second toe, usually caused by genetics."
Zhou Ning squatted down for a look, then took out his phone and found the photo of Liu Xiangrui’s foot. His foot was bent as if the toes were touching the ground, and from being confined in shoes for a long time, it now appeared pinched together.
"I’ve asked them to take samples. If it’s Liu Xiangrui’s footprint, we might find DNA since he had just taken a shower, making it easier to collect samples."
With that, Zhou Ning motioned to Mr. Wang, who was coming out of the room, and he hurried over to take samples.
"How’s the investigation inside going?"
"We’ve essentially completed our examination. You can go in and take a look now."
Zhou Ning didn’t move, not because he didn’t want to look, but because Mr. Yang was reliable. Upon entry, all the spots had been photographed, including the position of the light switches, from where fingerprints were lifted, to the card stuck in the slot for card-triggered electricity, which was also packaged up.
The search was conducted with utmost caution, and people like that made the job reassuring.
After a while, Xu Dayuan came from behind. Before he could speak, Yang Xuetong emerged, quickly approaching Zhou Ning and pointing to the sorting boxes carried by Zou Jialong and others behind him,
"Should we inform the sea therapy staff that I’ve collected hair from these bedding items, but we still need to take them back? There are a few unique marks on them I suspect to be rice blue stain."
This discovery made Zhou Ning stop in his tracks.
"Take them. I’ll go handle it. Anything else found in the room?"
Yang Xuetong held up the camera, approached Zhou Ning, and continuously flipped through it, explaining:
"The room has been carefully cleaned; not a single garbage can had a bag, and the cups were scrubbed and placed back in their original positions, but the water stains on them weren’t wiped off, so it wasn’t the work of the service staff. The bath towels, towels, and hand towels were all tossed into the bathtub.
There was a pool of water in the tub, into which someone had poured disinfectant. Even though a good amount of water had evaporated, there was still about three-quarters of it left, and a faint smell could still be detected. I think whoever cleaned up the room didn’t want to leave any traces behind.
As for the other bedroom without a bathroom, the bed had no sheets, just a mattress and the hotel’s quilt, which we packed up. The coffee table was completely empty. We’ll need to ask the service staff about what the normal arrangement for this room is. It feels like someone lived here, but all traces of them were cleared out."
Upon hearing this, Xu Dayuan immediately dialed a number, probably the manager who had just followed them here. After several rings, the call connected, and Xu Dayuan asked the person to come over. Soon after, the sound of high heels running could be heard outside the villa.
The manager had already arrived outside the suite’s door.
"Did you call for me, Officer?"
Xu Dayuan gestured with his chin toward the interior of the room.
"The bedroom in this suite that doesn’t have a bathroom—how was it set up before? Do you have any photos? We need to make a comparison."
The person quickly pulled out a card and ran to the suite opposite, opening the door directly.
"Leader, you can take a look at this suite. The layout and arrangement of all the suites in this building number three are exactly the same."
Zhou Ning quickly went over, and as soon as he entered, he made a beeline for the bedroom on the north side. Indeed, the room’s layout was consistent with the one across the hall—a large bed in the center, a coat rack and desk on the side, and at the window, a coffee table with two loop chairs, on top of which was a tray with two coasters, two glass cups, and an ashtray. freewebnoveℓ.com
It seemed what was missing was the contents of this tray. Zhou Ning walked over, picked up the tray, and gestured for Yang Xuetong to come over and take pictures.
"We’d better take photos for the record. It looks like these items are what’s missing from that room. Whoever cleaned up must have taken the bed sheets. Perhaps something was left on them. Have you examined the mattress and quilt carefully?"
Yang Xuetong paused, his expression becoming a bit odd, but still moved to Zhou Ning’s side, lowered his voice, and said:
"We found something, but I’m not sure how to describe it."
Zhou Ning looked at the photo, where on the edge of the quilt, there was a fan-shaped pale yellow stain with a clear sense of direction, denser towards the sharp angle and more sparse at the distance.
However, it was a sign of soaking, not a direct splash onto the quilt, as you couldn’t see the typical shape of water droplets. The area and shape of this splash looked a lot like urine.
"Are you suspecting urine? Surely no one would urinate on the bed? And even if it was incontinence, it wouldn’t look like this."
Yang Xuetong coughed, seemingly scrambling for words in his mind about how to clearly explain it to Zhou Ning.
"Ah, Zou Jialong come here, repeat what you just told me. I don’t know how to explain this to the boss."
At such a loud call, Xu Dayuan and Liu Yongxin also came over, and everyone turned to look at Zou Jialong, who looked embarrassed, scratching his head, not knowing how to start. Yang Xuetong became impatient and gave his shoe a kick.
"Where is that enthusiasm you had just now when you told me? Spit it out!"
Zou Jialong coughed.
"When I saw that stain, what came to my mind was a screenshot from a novel my classmate had sent. It seemed to be an excerpt, the adult kind, and not the conventional male-female type, if you know what I mean. In it, they described how a man might lose control of his bladder when... you know, like a shower head lying on the floor, spraying out a bit."
Zhou Ning suddenly understood; he’d never been exposed to that kind of literature. If Zou Jialong could be this embarrassed, it seemed the content of that excerpt must be quite explicit, and Zhou Ning now found himself curious about what exactly it contained.
As he was lost in thought, Zhou Ning’s phone rang. The caller was Zhao Xinli. Zhou Ning quickly picked up.
"What’s up?"
"Hey, I was just wondering how busy you all are over there. Do you need my help? I’ve wrapped up here and could come over anytime."
Zhou Ning was somewhat surprised; Xu Dayuan had tasked Mr. Zhao with translating some coded messages. Zhou Ning had skimmed through them before; he knew all the characters, but when strung together, they seemed like sentences yet made no sense to him at all.
Could it be that Mr. Zhao had actually deciphered them?
"Are you saying you’ve translated those codes?"
"Of course, with me on the case, how could I not translate them? Actually, we hadn’t found any pattern; many of them are classic lines from movies and dramas. I guess both individuals are quite the artistic types, going back and forth, thinking it’s more romantic, perhaps?"
Romantic—the word sounded so odd when applied to two men. But given what Zou Jialong had just shared, Zhou Ning wasn’t surprised.
"Let me put you on speaker; be detailed, and let Director Xu listen as well!"
